Blog Post by: Alden Phinney
It's the 21st century, bro. We've got iPads, iPhones, iWatches,
iMacs, iNtense agriculture, electric vehicles, solar hydrolysis, renewably
charged Teslas, and big friggin windmills to power our iGadgets. Peak of the
world, my friend. Coming from coastal California, I’ve long been fed this
narrative of the left coast’s environmental and technological superiority in an
exceptionally American world populated with neanderthal carbon burners. Have
you seen that electric high speed rail proposal, bro? Pretty sweeeeeeet.
That is to say, I arrived in Denmark underwhelmed. Copenhagen
airport functions much like any other, with concrete tarmac allowing various
sized jets to ascend and descend, and their passengers to embark and disembark,
amid a whirlwind of duty-free consumption. Down on the quai, waiting for the
train, Paige and I met an Estonian woman. She was an English and German
instructor, wife of an old Danish man, and being deported that very same day
for lacking a valid visa, leaving her husband, a citizen, to his own devices
while she reapplied to the Danish consulate in her home country. Her plight was
a heartbreaking reminder of the European Union’s inflexibility regarding
eligibility for citizenship; I had similarly been asked to leave the E.U. not 6
months prior while waiting for an Irish passport application surely languishing
on some bureaucrat’s desk somewhere. I hope she finds her way back as soon as
the winds may blow.
Paige and I caught our transfer train with only seconds to
spare, marvelling at our good fortune without questioning why the train was
leaving a good four minutes ahead of schedule. While lounging in felt reclining
seats, we whizzed by the Danish countryside, pocked with farms, irrigation, and
the occasional windmill. It stood in stark contrast to California’s sprawling
agricultural infrastructure, viewed most often from a car seat, air conditioned
yet stuck in immovable traffic on the highway.
Paige and I stepped off the train, thirsting for potable water
after a33333333333 long day of traveling… The only plausible refilling station
was a 7-11, where we paid about $4 for a big jug of water. We boarded a ferry
belching black smoke to take us to a renowned renewable energy island.
Samsø is an island as technologically advanced as any in the
world, and in many ways at the cutting edge of energy innovation. However,
being on this idyllic isle has made me realize that a sustainable future will
be comprised as much of old technologies and old-fashioned talking as any
whizz-bang application of machinery and computers.
Arriving on Samsø, you are struck by the open fields and quaint
villages. The island is famous for its potatoes and agricultural products. Vast
meadows of herbs and amber grains sway in the ample breezes off the North Sea.
Being an agricultural community as well as an island, Samsingers are quick to
take matters into their own hands. Samsø’s strength in advancing an energy
transition lies in its resilient and resourceful community. The closeness of
people to each other and to the land breeds a kind of respect and
responsibility that I haven’t seen anywhere else.
Being on Samsø, you realize that what we think of as new energy
infrastructure, from windmills to solar panels, are building off of an ancient
human tradition of harvesting energy from our environments. In fact, the
conventional infrastructure of fossil fueled power plants, energy extracted
from deep underground, was the outlier in the course of human history. To see
the 1 MW turbines chugging along, with the 300 year old wind-mills sitting in
their shadows, reminded me of the importance of drawing off of our histories in
the fight against climate change.
Bringing my experiences back to the United States, I’m reminded
of the disparate histories which different communities know. Denmark was
shockingly homogeneous. Access to electricity, education and the internet are
widespread; stark reminders of colonialism and slavery are not part of the
national character. I was at times doubtful that the community leadership
harnessed by the Samsø Energy Academy could be replicated in the United States.
However, I think the tools that Soren, Malene, and the other
folks at the Energy Academy and Samsø at large have taught us are replicable in
spirit if not entirely in practice. Communities here do not know each other
like the people of Samsø know each other; a first step to facilitating this
kind of transformative change in our own communities is bridging that which
divides us through discussion. Then, acknowledging local leadership as being
the best placed to guide, validate and benefit from renewable energy
infrastructure; no more wind farms in Northern Maine for the benefit of
investors in New Jersey. Localizing our energy supply allows money and jobs to
stay in the community impacted, lowering opposition and building buy-in for
behavior change as well.
When people see the link between their energy supply and their
energy use, they get it. Energy is
not something that comes from somewhere else and evaporates into thin air.
Energy is pervasive, and it is up to us to harness it. We have the potential to
be the first generation to move from energy hunters and gatherers to energy
farmers, cultivating our natural resources for our modern lifestyles. Let’s
hope our communities are up to the task.
